Blog

Oct 05

The Secret to Lead Conversion

In the business classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Dale Carnegie showed us that the secret to sales success builds on showing a genuine interest in other people and rests in the relationship that develops from there. The concept may not be much of a secret anymore, but it’s as important as ever in the sales cycle — and too many people aren’t following through on it. It turns out that Carnegie was onto something.

Did you know that just 2 percent of sales happen during the first touch? Two percent. Let that sink in. That means 98 percent of sales happen sometime after that first touch. In fact, ample research supports that 80 percent of sales happen after the fifth follow-up. If your sales team isn’t following up past that first touch with a prospect, there’s a slim chance they’ll convert.

With the direct correlation between touches and conversion, it’s clear how important it is to follow up and nurture relationships with leads. We can look back to our good friend Dale Carnegie and thank him for sharing his wisdom about relationships. If you want to nurture and convert your leads, you’ll want to instill Carnegie’s principles into your sales team. Considering how many quality leads get away, there’s always room for improvement in developing relationships. How can you start building that lead relationship today?

Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up

It’s all about the follow-up — or lack of follow-up, if you’re wondering why your leads aren’t converting. You’ve probably experienced it yourself: You have a great interaction with a company and express interest in their product, but then you never hear from them again. That company just lost you, a hot lead. You can’t buy if you’re not presented with the opportunity to do so. Make it easy on your consumer base by implementing a follow-up system.

Implement a System

The habit of nurturing leads stems partly from company culture and partly from systems and processes — it’s something of a chicken-egg situation. If you don’t have systems in place to make follow-up part of your sales process, it’s not going to be a priority for your team. And if you don’t have a culture of determination and relationship-building in place, the systems and processes don’t matter. Entrepreneur and business transformer Robert Clay recommends a five-no strategy — follow up with a lead until you’ve heard no at least five times.